Training

With this year's race season getting into swing, there are a lot of things we are doing to prepare ourselves for our individual events. We are training on the regular, making sure our gear is up to par, but are you getting yourself truly prepared for your next race? We've aimed to make that much easier with a new release of our OCR Preparedness spreadsheet.

If you have ever run a Spartan Race, you will have probably heard about Spartan SGX or have seen some of the propaganda in the festival areas at one of their races. Many times, there will be a certified Spartan SGX coach running a warm-up session just prior to your start time, Spartan will be hosting SGX events nearby, or a local gym will be advertising that they are SGX certified. The question is, what exactly is Spartan SGX, and what can it do for you?

A recent article by Brad Stulberg provoked me, outside of being angry, to counter some of the points made; namely that "Participating in endurance sports requires two main things: lots of time and money." Outside of being a "hit piece", much of the article is arrogant and uninformed. While the first claim is absolutely true, you do need plenty of time, the second is absolutely false. You do not need a lot of money, it is not "white privilege" or a white collar job... at least for OCR. You do not need to be a masochist. We at OCRAddict want to get everybody out on the course and if a lack of funds has kept you from getting out there, we are going to help you get over that wall (see what I did there...?) and get on the course.

In Part 1 of this article I deconstructed obstacle course races (OCR) into two key components: running and obstacles. Part 1 focused exclusively on the running component of OCR races. Now, it’s time to focus on the obstacles.

Many of us have been there; we are training hard, running hard, then we start to feel some discomfort on the outside of our thigh down to the knee. Some of us ignore it until it is too late, some of us start taking the time to understand what is going on and correct it or treat it. Usually, in a runner, this is the start of ITBS (Iliotibial Band Syndrome). If you let it linger too long, you can put yourself out of commission quickly. The best thing to do is start treating it before it even happens.

We at OCRAddict have been successful by looking at things differently and by doing so, we have helped bring new Ultra Beasts to the racer. In 2017, Colorado, Texas, and the UB Championships have all been introduced due, in part, to our interaction with Joe DeSena and Team. On that note, and wanting to bring things to the next level, here is another take on Ultra Beast training. Our first training plan was designed to address two areas. First, ‘what is the true obstacle of completing an Ultra Beast?’ which is embracing the suck and learning to tell that voice in your head saying that you cannot do it to go to hell. The next is if you are already beast length ready, but only have a commercial/basic gym to work with and how you can prepare for an Ultra Beast. The idea for that plan was to get you to a buckle, glow in the dark medal, or one time only high-five for your efforts. The idea for this guide is if you’ve been DNF’ing due to a lack of physical preparation causing; this article will help in getting you to that finish line. If you have been finishing, hopefully, we can help move you up to the top 50% or 25% of finishers.

Anyone can run a race badly. Anyone can skip obstacles and do less than 30 burpees. Anyone can care more about pre- and post-races selfies than the race itself. And, if you fall into these categories, I’ll be honest with you—this article really is not for you. Don’t misread me, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with being more about the medals than the motivation. But, I wrote this article for racers who give each race their very best, even if it means dragging themselves across the finish line. If this is you, or you want it to be you, read on.

This is a deeply personal piece for everyone, but we have been getting a lot of requests for this as we approach our next Ultra Beast in the great Garden State (NJ). In this, I will cover my race day usages and recommendations as a baseline. It is up to you on how you would like to tinker with the specifics, or what you use.

After putting it off for too long, you commit to “get fit”. You go to CrossFit, start training for to a Spartan Race, join a boot camp class, etc.—only to find yourself injured shortly down the road or even the minute you start working out.